Man Who Scammed Digital Lock Company Has Been Arrested

By
Lin Jiawen
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If you’ve been on Facebook over the past few days, you might have seen this post floating around on your feed:

And if you haven’t, that’s alright. But if you’re looking to join in on the gossip and drama, it’s unfortunately (but also, fortunately) over.

Just a day after My Digital Lock Pte Ltd took to Facebook to detail how Travis Ow, an ex-employee of theirs, scammed customers of over $100,000, the police announced yesterday (1 April) that they had arrested the 22-year-old on Thursday (31 March).

Which brings me to another question: Is the boss is going to give the police $5,000? I mean, they technically found the guy, right?

And guess what? He has other charges waiting for him as well. I guess “locked” might be a pretty accurate description of what his life might be like from now on.

How the Scam Occurred

Based on details given by the police in their statement, Ow helped collect payments from customers.

These payments were for a number of services provided by My Digital Lock: the installation of digital gates, fire-rated doors as well as the mattresses that customers bought from the company.

Of course, we all know that Ow didn’t end up arranging for the installations to take place lah.

Founder Mr Ronn Teo revealed that the deposits, as well as the balance of payments, were made to Ow in either cash, to his bank account or through PayNow to Ow’s personal phone number.

Ow had even changed his PayNow account name to “My Digital Lock Pte Ltd”, fooling customers into thinking that they were paying to the company directly when they were not.

The Aftermath

Ow’s actions had initially gone unnoticed, but were discovered after multiple customers contacted the company through phone calls and by visiting the outlets in person.

The customers wanted to check on the status of their orders.

“We checked, but we couldn’t find their orders in the system. The customers were very angry,” Mr Teo explained.

Afterwards, Mr Teo also revealed that staff members took two weeks to call various customers, and they realised that there were around 30 to 40 customers who had been scammed by Ow.

Apart from that, while Ow had allegedly made around $94,000 via scamming customers through PayNow, Mr Teo, 32, also claimed that approximately $52,000 worth of items were found to be missing from the company.

And like any logical person who cares for his company, Mr Teo lodged a police report on Tuesday (29 March).

Out of desperation, Mr Teo also offered a $5,000 reward for anyone who could find Ow, as well as a $500 reward if they could “verify” the legitimacy of Ow’s story, which was that he needed to take care of his family as his girlfriend or wife gave birth to their daughter last year.

He also highlighted that the company had “groomed him” due to his sob story, probably out of compassion.

There were several customers who made police reports regarding their experience with Ow, and Mr Teo revealed to The Straits Times that there were at least six customers who did so between Wednesday and Friday (30 March to 1 April).

Mr Teo had previously announced that My Digital Lock would still fulfil the orders of customers who have been affected, provided that they provide the company with proof that they have made a police report.

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And that’s not all.

According to preliminary investigations by the police, it seems like Ow has also been involved in other similar cases before, although the details of these cases have yet to be released.

Ow will be charged today (1 April) with cheating, which means he may be facing up to ten years in prison, as well as a fine.

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Featured Image: Facebook (My Digital Lock Pte Ltd)

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Lin Jiawen
Email: [email protected]